Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Mirecki taken to hospital after roadside attack

Religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said he was beaten early Monday morning on the side of the road in rural Douglas Mirecki said in a phone interview that the incident happened as he was “going out for breakfast, taking a drive and thinking about things.” He declined to say exactly where it happened, and the sheriff’s department did not release the location, except to say it was south of Lawrence.

Mirecki said that when the pickup truck began tailgating him, he stopped his vehicle hoping it would pass. Instead, the men pulled up directly behind him, he said.

“They got out, and I made the mistake of getting out,” he said.

Mirecki said the beating began almost instantly. The men punched him about the head and shoulders and struck him with a metal object, he said.

…

The sheriff’s office is classifying the case as an aggravated battery. On Monday afternoon, the office asked for the public’s help finding the suspects. Mirecki described them as two white males between the ages of 30 and 40, one wearing a red visor and wool gloves and both wearing jeans.

When John Altevogt calls his political enemies "Nazis" (as first reported here, now in the LJWorld), and refers to an atheist group as a "hate group," he obscures a vital difference.

Nazis used physical violence against their political enemies, and Nazis physically attacked people for their religious beliefs. Violence like this is a hate crime.

I don't hold John Altevogt, nor any of the other critics, personally responsible for this event. I will suggest that the two thugs responsible almost certainly know Mr. Altevogt, and I hope he denounces this violence and demands that the responsible parties turn themselves in. Maybe they'll hear and do the right thing.